Electric Heating
 

Hi, I've noticed that many new TV houses are electrically heated. Besides the fact the cooking is also electric, coming from northern part of the country, electric is much more expensive than gas heating even though it may not require much heating in TV. So, for those of you living in a new TV house with electric heating, do you have any complaints on the cost of heating?

Cheers!

Some of the new villages south of 44 have gas cooking, hot water, and dryer but electric heat. You will rarely use the heating elements. I don't know about the older homes but the new ones are pretty well insulated and hold the heat very well.

No, no complaints.

In Virginia, we had gas heat and we loved it and we were worried if we would find electric heat acceptable. We are very pleased with our electric heat.

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Houses with gas cost MORE than all electric.

Long time members will know me as the guy with an whole house electric monitor. With 10,000 reads per second 24/7 my Sense monitor, Sense: Track energy use in real time to make your home more energy efficient., identified appliances usage and I did this for three years. This included an all electric home that I rented giving me insight on how different people use electricity.

First, the things that you think use a ton of kilowatts do not. Second the monthly availability of service fees for gas more than cancel any savings with gas. I have a gas home now so I have compared

The big users in the electric over gas are water heater, dryer and hvac heating.

Let's dispense with the water heater, a tanked water heater costs 10.00 to 14.00 a month to operate. A dryer is 4.50 to 8.00.

Heat is harder to assign a cost. But know this emergency or resistance heat, rarely used, is 94-96% efficient. Heat pump heat (the one that is used) is approximately 250% efficient.

Say what!!! The efficiency standard was established for resistance heat. Heat pumps are just that good at all temps when outdoors is 40 degrees or greater.

Now the exceptions, if you heat your pool with electric resistance heat (not a pool heat pump) then gas is better.

Notes: No, tankless water heaters are not great cost savers with no tank of super insulated water to keep warm. How do I know? I used a remote water heater switch to measure the cost of keeping the heater on and compared the holding costs of keeping a water heater on 24/7 vice on 12, off 12. In order to eliminate bias in water usage I conducted this test while the home was rented, the tenants were unaware of the test. I even had a water heater -water usage (gallons)- to measure hot water usage. I also kept a tank of water hot in a vacant home for a month and measured the cost of keeping water hot I.e. standby costs. You use far less hot water than you think.

If anyone has conducted more analysis than I have I would love to hear about it.

This statement is not entirely true. The new heat pumps are more efficient than gas heaters and cost far less annually to run. See below link:

Heat Pump Swimming Pool Heaters | Department of Energy

I have experience as I have had 3 pools in my life, and have used gas and heat pumps. It really comes down to size of the pool, and geographic location. In MI, a heat pump couldn't be used on a 42,000 gallon pool. The ambient temperature was generally too low for a heat pump to work, and heat pumps only go up to 144K BTU's. I had a 400K gas heater, and it was barely able to keep up... and was very expensive.

In The Villages, most pools are fairly small (6K - 15K gallons), and ambient temperatures are perfect for heat pumps. I keep my pool at 88 degrees year round, and during January and February, it only adds $30-$40 to my electric bill. The rest of the year, it adds less than $20 to my bill ($0 for about 5 months).

There are numerous calculators online that compare gas to electric costs for heating a pool. You can input your local electric and gas rates, size of your pool, and it uses zip code for normal ambient temps.

When I use these calculators, it shows a heat pump have a savings of $800 per year over gas when keeping an 8,000 gallon pool at 88.

We have an 11 year old Begonia with all electric.

Cost of electricity is not a problem.

Would prefer a gas stove but dealing with electric one.

It's not electric heat. What you have is a heat pump. It uses the refrigerant to heat the air. The heat strips are a back up for the heat pump. If it gets too cold they will come on the assist the heat pump. They will also come on to assist the heat pump if you turn the heat up 5 to 10 degrees. The heat strips are also used during the defrost cycle. This is Florida and we don't have too many below freezing days so it is not much of a concern.

I also came from "up North" and was concerned about the cost. Do not fret! my elec bill for the hot summer months is about $ 120/mth and the a/c is on 24/7. In the cooler months the bill is $ 75. I have an all electric house, too

I have a 14,000 gallon pool, solar heating for the pool on the roof, and a heat pump for the pool installed last summer. In January the pool guy installed a pool blanket thaT looks like bubble wrap. This keeps a LOT of heat from escaping at night when it is cooler in the winter. I also turned off the heat pump, as we weren’t using the pool at all at the time. A couple days ago I checked the pool thermometer. It was 85°, depending on solar heating for most of the heat and the pool blanket for keeping it there. If I want to hang out in the pool, the heat pump will bring the pool up to 90° in an hour from 85°. I’ve read that having a pool blanket isn’t going to heat your pool many degrees by itself, but it certainly helps keep in the heat from sunny days provided by the solar heating on the roof. It was about 1/20th the price of the heat pump.

Having an all electric house just like having all of your eggs in one basket.

It depends on where you buy. Houses south of the Turnpike use natural gas for:

Dryer
Hot water hester
Stove

The heat is a heat pump which uses the air conditioner. They are efficient above freezing. Some use electric heat below freezing.

When I purchased my home in The Village of Belevedere vs. one in Duval, my realtor informed me that homes with gas cooking and gas plumbed dryers were eliminated in the homes further south of 466. Homes with heat pumps and electric cooking could be built faster and cheaper. I have no regrets to this day that I chose my home further north.

No. It depends on size of home and how high, low you keep temp. We average about
$70. month for 1200 sq.ft.home.

We have all electric, including heating our 10,000 gallon pool. Love it. SECO is a cooperative here for electricity. Not sure if all of TV is in the co-op. We pay much less now than we did for oil heat & utilities out of state, with no pool.

We do keep a blanket on the pool in the winter months. Costs about $25/mo more during the winter to heat the pool. $150/mo total. By April the heater & pool blanket are off for the season. Good luck with your decision